An eagle putt by Ben Curtis at the 15th hole that missed by just a few inches might have made his day more exciting, but the Kent resident was encouraged by his tie for sixth in the Memorial Tournament, his best finish in 12 appearances.

The former Kent State All-America and 2003 British Open champion got to 10-under par on Sunday, but a bogey at 18 left him at 9-under 279. It earned him $215,450, nearly surpassing his season earnings of $241,759 coming in.

Curtis had missed the cut in his last four events, with his previous best finish a tie for 12th at the Shell Houston Open. It was his first top 10 since he tied for second at the 2012 Players Championship.

“It’s nice,” Curtis said afterward. “I had a decent finish in Houston and felt like I was going to get some momentum going, then had a bad three weeks, really a couple bad rounds more than anything. I had a couple decent rounds in there – second round at Charlotte and the first round at New Orleans (both rounds of 70). It was just a matter of time, getting somewhere comfortable, getting good thoughts in my head with the swing. I obviously had it going this week.